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Serial (podcast)

I'm on episode 3 and it's very good.


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On the 4th episode and have to say it's been pretty good. Not what I expected at all but definitely makes you want to keep listening.
 
Just finished episode 6 and it man it punched me right in the feels


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I think I'm going to wait a few months and listen to it again start to finish. Probably the best podcast ever put together, start to finish.

This American Life is consistently great, but the narrative arc here, plus the production, the folk humor, the storytelling, everything just pretty damn perfect. It would have made for a fine TAL 2 episode but for the depth of the character in JBM, where I think they realized they really had something unique.

And I think Brian was a far better storyteller and interviewer than Sarah was in Serial too.
 
He was very present in all of his conversations. He also sounded like he was on the verge of tears so many times (I just think that's his natural voice).
 
probs too early to post spoilers but i do definitely want to talk about the show in detail (think this was what nonny alluded to a little about the whole show being available at once)

The mercury poisoning angle of John's depression is really compelling to me. Dude was clearly a genius.

I thought the reporting Brian did from Tyler to the Florida cousins and back was outstanding. You left the first three episodes clearly on Tyler's side and then flipped quickly back to neutral or anti-Tyler as the show continued.

not spoiler-y aside:

I think this was a perfect fit for a podcast. The self-contained story, told across several episodes, is a great format I hope NPR continues to explore.
 
Perhaps we should start a dedicated thread with spoilers?

In finishing the podcast, one over-arching thing that struck me is

This is a modern, non-fiction speaking for the dead.

Speakers of the Dead have full authority to investigate a person and their work after their death, and speak with judgement about the essence of them in eulogy.
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AnonymousDeac said:
Don't think I'm a fan of them making it all available at once
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Anyone listen to Lovett or Leave It? He was ranting about this on Friday's episode.

Basically the theory that when you binge watch or listen something you forget about it much more quickly than if you digest and discuss between episodes. Which I tend to agree with.

Serial was awesome to talk and speculate about with friends.
 
If you're looking for more content after you finish Shit-town, try APM's In the Dark podcast.

It's good public radio investigative reporting on an old murder. Very similar to Serial season one.

I'm two episodes in and I give it a thumbs up.
 
LadyDeac03 said:
Anyone listen to Lovett or Leave It? He was ranting about this on Friday's episode.

Basically the theory that when you binge watch or listen something you forget about it much more quickly than if you digest and discuss between episodes. Which I tend to agree with.

Serial was awesome to talk and speculate about with friends.
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Yeah, but there's not a lot to digest or speculate about in S-Town. It's more of just following along with the story.

I'd give it a B-. Good storytelling and an interesting main character, but no real payoff.
 
LadyDeac03 said:
Anyone listen to Lovett or Leave It? He was ranting about this on Friday's episode.

Basically the theory that when you binge watch or listen something you forget about it much more quickly than if you digest and discuss between episodes. Which I tend to agree with.

Serial was awesome to talk and speculate about with friends.
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Different podcasts call for different listening styles. Obviously you will get more out of a podcast if you spend more time reflecting, debating or reading about it. The thing is though, almost everyone I know that enjoys listening to podcasts is about 100 podcasts behind on their listening list. When a poscast is good enough, people will pace themselves and do the necessary research to keep up. I think a lot of people here binged S-Town, but I would also bet that a lot of people Googled the Rose Maze, or what John B looks like, etc. Its people's own responsibility to put as much effort into understanding a podcast as it takes. It's also their right to enjoy it however they want.

It's kind of like when people say "Don't listen to podcasts on 1.5x speed!" Indeed, there are some podcasts, take Lore for example, where the pacing is part of the program. But if you're listening to something educational and pace is not important, and there are 100 episodes, I think it's better to have listened to all 100 at 1.5 speed than 75 (and maybe never the final 25) at normal speed.
 
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DistrictDeacon said:
Yeah, but there's not a lot to digest or speculate about in S-Town. It's more of just following along with the story.

I'd give it a B-. Good storytelling and an interesting main character, but no real payoff.
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Agreed, the first three episodes ended with cliff hangers, but in the end I was left with "that's it" kind of feeling. I did really appreciate the depiction of small town/rural Alabama culture and life. i that is really the substance or payoff of the podcast...not so much the resolution of the narrative.
 
I thought the "what is a life well lived" question was pretty powerful, but I'm a sucker for those kinds of things.
 
I calibrated my expectations after the second episode. It's not Serial.

The payoff is in the painstaking reporting and beautiful story-telling about an interesting human, in a set of worlds not many of us directly inhabit (back-country Alabama, horology circles, for example) but can digest with wonder.
 
pretty engrossing storytelling but a bit too "waspy liberals go to the zoo of rural americans", even by TAL's standards
 
Brian Reed borrows (or was produced to do so) many techniques from Serial, but this podcast is a This American Life child, through and through.
 
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